X-Men: Days Of Future Past director Bryan Singer made good on a bet with his assistant after agreeing to get a tattoo if the film crossed the $700 million (GBP422 million) mark at the global box office. The latest X-Men movie opened in cinemas in May (14) to overwhelming success, raking in $110 million (GBP69 million) in the U.S. in its debut weekend alone.
When the superhero film passed the $500 million (GBP301.5 million) benchmark, Singer's assistant inked the official round X-Men symbol on his calf, and challenged his boss to do the same if and when the film passed $700 million.
Singer shared a photo of the new tattoo on Instagram.com last month (Jul14), and wrote, "My assistant kept his end of the bet. Tattoo at 500mil. Sucka (sic)! Yet now we are passed 700 it's (screenwriter Simon) Kinberg and my turn."
And on Wednesday (20Aug14), Singer made good on his wager, posting a photo of himself getting inked at Los Angeles' Shamrock Social Club tattoo parlour.
Offering moral support, Sir Patrick Stewart, who plays Professor X in the franchise, was on hand during the session to observe as the tattoo artist got to work on Singer's calf.
The director added the caption, "Getting my X-Tattoo with @sirpatstew witnessing midnight," while Stewart tweeted, "I'm great support staff."
The success of the film is a real tonic for Singer, who pulled out of promoting the movie after he was accused of sexually assaulting a teenager. The case has since been dismissed.

Marvel/Everett Collection
Realistic, gritty, grounded.
Are there any three words that comic book fans are more tired of hearing from filmmakers? Those three buzzwords are thrown around like confetti every time a new superhero film is in development, as if a necessary step in promoting your comic book movie is assuring fans that your film is going to be painted in the appropriate shades of grey. Now, grey's a fine color; it's given so many of our superheroes some much-needed dimension, filled out the edges of characters that feel too antiquated to work in modern cinema, and allowed comic book films to gain at least a little ground in becoming a respected genre of film. But not every superhero or superteam needs to be dip-dyed in darkness, especially if it comes at the expense of the characters' true natures.
Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot over at Fox has not been shy about introducing the world to a darker version of Marvel's first family, and their commitment to this interpretation of the characters was recently echoed by screenwriter Simon Kinberg. In an interview with Hitfix, the Fantastic Four scribe said, "This will definitely be a more realistic, a more gritty, grounded telling of the Fantastic Four."
The problem is that there's nothing gritty, grounded, or realistic about the Fantastic Four. Marvel's first family is probably the least grounded heroes in the company's entire stable of heroes. Their origin story reads like pure comic book cheese: four friends travel to outer space in a rocket ship that wanders into a galactic storm and is hit by cosmic rays that give all four members incredible powers. The four then decide to dress up in bright blue spandex and protect a big and shiny version of Manhattan from nefarious villains such as Mole Man and Doctor Doom. It's hard to reason why anyone would read that origin story and reason that it needs a dose "gritty" or "realistic." While a hero like Batman thrived when given the grounded treatment, with Christopher Nolan's trilogy turning Gotham's gothic alleyways and ridiculous villains into a noir-ish crime story and morality play, the Fantastic Four is a different beast altogether. Going too realistic would strip the work of the qualities that make it a classic to begin with.
All we need to do is look at the recent Superman reboot, Man of Steel, to see the problem. Zach Snyder and the folks at the WB were all too eager to follow the mold of Batman and give Supes a dark makeover after Superman Returns drew ire from hewing to closely to Richard Donner's original. Unfortunately, Snyder's Man of Steel completely misses the mark. It takes the big blue boy scout, a simple, fun, and whimsical hero, and puts him in an utterly joyless movie. Man of Steel is loud, overbearing, and dour. It has no sense of levity, and it especially has no sense of wonder, one of the most important aspects of Superman. The film's biggest crime however is that it's hardly ever fun. What's the point of watching a film about a flying man trying saving the planet if the film takes itself way too seriously to be fun. Superman is supposed to be a bright primary colored romp, and was instead turned into a bleak, grey, slog of a film. All in the name of being gritty and realistic.
It seems that far too often, filmmakers mistake words like "gritty," and "grounded" for words like complex and interesting. Supeheroes don't always need to scowl their way through their adventures, and being dark and gritty isn't the only way to produce a quality, well reviewed film. Hopefully, the minds behind Fantastic Four don't lose sight of the original inspirations of their film.
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20th Century Fox
Less than a week ago, it seemed almost impossible that Fox would be taking the chance on serializing their X-Men franchise. But the studio's just confirmed, via FirstShowing, that the next film in the series, X-Men: Apocalypse, will not be another self-contained entry but a "direct sequel" to Days of Future Past. They'll even be using the classic Marvel post-credits tease to reveal their next villain.
[For the curious and SPOILER immune: Magneto, as played by Michael Fassbender, will come across the space mutant Apocalypse, who will possess his body and amplify his powers enough to make Magneto the most powerful mutant on Earth.]
Well, Fox, sounds like you put your money where your mouth is going to be in 2016! That promise to be more inspired by Marvel seems to be genuine. Even the inclusion of Apocalypse, an all-powerful villain, is pretty similar to Marvel's Ultron (though the former's space alien is swapped out for the latter's sentient robot).
Well, if you're going for it, Fox, why not copy a few more things?
- Same World, Different Heroes: Why shouldn't the new Fantastic Four take place in the same universe as the X-Men? That X-universe has had seven films to work itself out, and while everything hasn't always landed well, it's survived for 15 years.
- Humor: When dealing The Marvel films, especially the Iron Mans, mix serious subject matter with jokes. The younger X-Men cast is plenty charismatic, so it would help to see some occasional levity to lighten the weight of the apocalypse.
- True Ensemble: As we saw in the trailer, X-Men: Days of Future Past might seem like an ensemble piece, it looks like it will still primarily be driven by Wolverine. But The Avengers honestly gave each member of the group time to shine, and Apocalypse should be the same.
But Marvel isn't perfect, and they've run into a few stumbling blocks along the way. Here are a few things to avoid:
- Boring MacGuffins: When you have to follow an object like the Tesseract through several movies, you end up either confusing those who have no idea what it is, or boring those who have heard an explanation multiple times.
- Gun Shy on Kills: Bringing back Coulson, refusing to get rid of Loki — when characters get popular, Marvel is hesitant to go through with their plans to acknowledge mortality through their deaths.
- Diversity: The X-Men is a wonderfully diverse group of heroes and villains, and the films have reflected that somewhat, but there's still a default to the main white male characters of Wolverine and Magneto. Drawing in other characters (or, in the case of Storm or Mystique, developing their characters so the two Oscar winners who play them have something to do).
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Splash News
Writer and producer Simon Kinberg, fresh off of his work writing X-Men: Days of Future Past and the reboot of The Fantastic Four, has just made it official with Fox, signing a deal to continue working with the studio and, he hopes, finally provide a competition to Marvel's Avengers series. Kinberg's bona fides have involved a few Fox projects, including X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: First Class. Now, Kinberg will be building Fox's superhero slate for at least the next three years.
But while Kinberg is a smart investment for Fox, it still seems unlikely that they will be able to build an interlocking, serialized franchise when each X-Men film feels the need to reboot either Xavier/Magneto's relationship or unleash some fresh torment on Wolverine. Hopefully that's what he means by more continuity. The Days of Future Past comics series is an ambitious undertaking, and hopefully will finally move beyond those same three characters (though the trailer seemed to suggest that once again it will be a Magneto/Professor X/Wolverine three hander, making Kinberg's promise already sound a little hollow).
But can Fox ever really hope to compete with Marvel's superhero canon? After all, Marvel's Avengers franchise really only began to take form when they were purchased by Disney, since they now can afford to plan their "phases" years in advance and only have to worry about adapting their comic series, which gives them over 50 years of material. But Fox is a large movie studio, and they have other properties to take care of -- ones that don't involve complication due to rights and character ownership that make them obligated to make more films every few years. That, more than anything, is what limits Fox's superhero possibilities. Kinberg or no Kinberg, their lack of flexibility means they can never have, say, Captain America make an appearance or mention a Skrull/human war. Granted, if the X-Men or Fantastic Four films are telling good enough stories, they won't need to make use of the large Marvel canon, but Kinberg clearly has his work cut out for him.
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Neill Blomkamp had a good story in mind when he was brewing up Elysium. Not a particularly new or unique story — the utopia/wasteland dichotomy, the race-to-paradise agenda are themes that have, historically, made themselves quite cozy in science fiction films and literature. But classic doesn't mean overdone. Familiar doesn't necessitate unoriginal. Elysium, from the get-go, had promise. It just doesn't seem to have ever figured out what it wanted to be.
At the forefront of the picture, likely abetted by our preconceived notions of what a Blomkamp movie is destined to be, Elysium has the feel of a District 9. It's gritty, naturalistic, earnest. Los Angeles circa 2154 even looks like South Africa (or at least Hollywood's South Africa). But pretty quickly into the film, things take a turn. A turn for the funny. As Max, star Matt Damon — a hard-working laborer, ex-con, and former foster child who holds strong to his affection for fellow orphan and childhood companion Frey (Alice Braga) — trades rejoinders with violent robot cops, grows hot-headed in arguments with automated civil servants, and laments no shortage of brushes with the criminal underbelly of Earth's future. Now, we're in Total Recall territory. Pulp sci-fi. The fun stuff.
But the evolution does not halt there. As Damon's quest to escape the treacheries of his decaying city and ascend to the promised land in the sky (literally, it's a city on a space station) Elysium, we shift gears once more toward summer blockbuster. Steadily escalating stakes, run-ins with nameless lackeys, that "one last shot" at the big victory, it's all the stuff of the genre's biggest. Everything from Star Wars to Pacific Rim. And when Elysium reaches this plateau, with its central villain — a rogue officer named Kruger (Sharlto Copley) — spouting the usual slew of cliché one liners, we might admittedly long for the naturalism of the film's first act, or the kooky tone of its second. But this chapter is when the excitement sets in: we're still having fun, just for different reasons.
Disjointed no doubt, Elysium does suffer a bit from its identity crisis. Never quite sure how exactly to connect with the picture, we're kept from doing so unabashedly. But again, the victory of this film is its joyfulness — a surprising feat for the director who brought us the bleak-as-all-hell District 9. As a man trying to save his own life, Damon isn't a martyr but an adventurer. L.A. isn't an oppressed wasteland, but a jungle. And Elysium? A tyrannical regime, sure, but a Kubrickian dream. With so much weight so ostensibly inherent in each of the story's facets, we're almost relieved to see how gleefully the movie is willing to play with them. So even when we say goodbye to some of the movie's gravity, its grit, its originality, we welcome in the fun. With open arms.
3.5/5
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter | Follow hollywood.com on Twitter @hollywood_com
More:Matt Damon Talks 'Elysium' and 'Avatar' ConnectionThe Funny Side of 'Elysium'Neill Blomkamp Is Making a Comedy
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Fans who're still sad about the end of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, take heart! Lucasfilm announced this morning that the Lucasfilm Animation division, and former Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni, are hard at work on a new cartoon series, Star Wars Rebels, set to debut on Disney Channel in Fall 2014. The series will be set in the 19-year period between Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope. Simon Kinberg, who's hard at work writing one of the mysterious Star Wars spin-off films, is writing the one-hour special telecast that will set up the series that will subsequently air on Disney XD.
Lucasfilm's official description of the series is this: "The action-filled series is set between the events of Episode III and IV – an era spanning almost two decades never-before explored on-screen. Star Wars Rebels takes place in a time where the Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy and hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights as a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking shape. Details about the show are a closely guarded secret at this point."
Most exciting for fans of The Clone Wars, however, is that Lucasfilm's release says Star Wars Rebels will feature "many of the key talents" that made the previous show. This means that, potentially, we could catch-up with Ashley Eckstein's Ahsoka after the Jedi-slaughtering events of Order 66 as she deals with the fact that her old master Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader. It also means we could revisit Darth Maul and Cad Bane, whose ultimate fates were left dangling at the conclusion of The Clone Wars series. All of that has yet to be confirmed, but is what every Clone Wars fan will be hoping for.
Either way, that Galaxy Far, Far Away is about to get a whole lot bigger. Check out a video of Filoni talking about the new series with Lucasfilm's Pablo Hidalgo, below.
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt and follow Hollywood.com @Hollywood_com
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Rumors spread like Imperial probe droids across the tundras of Hoth on Thursday when news leaked that J.J. Abrams would take on the much-coveted job of directing Star Wars: Episode VII. Slated for an unspecified date in 2015, Abrams — who will soon release his sci-fi sequel Star Trek Into the Darkness — will helm the picture under Trek and LOST producer Bryan Burk and Spielberg-partner-in-crime Kathleen Kennedy.
This news follows months of speculation, with dozens of names reportedly up for the job (including Argo director Ben Affleck). According to an official press release, there wasn't much competition when Abrams became a contender. In response to the news, George Lucas says, "I’ve consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller. He’s an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn’t be in better hands.”
Kennedy added to Lucas' praise. “It’s very exciting to have J.J. aboard leading the charge as we set off to make a new Star Wars movie,” says the Jurassic Park and E.T. producer. “J.J. is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience, and will bring that talent to create an unforgettable motion picture.”
Also included in the press release is the announcement that Empire Strikes Back writer Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg, rumored to be working on their own Star Wars spin-off movies, will consult on the film. Hints of a connected universe a la Marvel?
For Abrams, the announcement is a dream come true. He caps off the official announcement with a heartwarming quip. “I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid."
Let's hope the next generation responds with as much love for Abrams as the director does for the original franchise mastermind when Episode 7 arrives in 2015.
[Photo Credit: WENN]
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
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After Disney and Marvel's The Avengers crossed the billion dollar mark in worldwide grosses, thanks to years of multi-picture world building, everyone in Hollywood is scrambling to put together their own interwoven franchises. From Paramount's Tom Clancy adaptations to WB's Justice League, the name of the game is expanded mythology, and now it appears Disney wants its next gargantuan undertaking to follow the same path.
Insiders have revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that Disney has hired a team to write spin-off entries set in the Star Wars universe. Whereas Marvel shot solo films for their many heroes and collided them for the epic Avengers, the plan will be to take advantage of the sprawling universe far, far, away with new adventures not disconnected from the Skywalker saga of the previous trilogies.
Earlier this month, writers Lawrence Kasdan (Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past) were hired to pen screenplays for two upcoming Star Wars films. Disney, who absorbed George Lucas' LucasFilm and the legendary sci-fi property in October, currently plan to continue the franchise with Episode VII, VIII, and IX beginning in 2015. The unnamed eighth entry is set to be written by Toy Story 3 screenwriter Michael Ardnt, and the logical conclusion upon the news was that Kasdan and Kinberg would script the later two entries. Not so, says the new report.
"Expanded Universe" is a familiar term for Star Wars enthusiasts, with many minor characters and corners of the ever-growing world explored in books, comics, video games, and even toys. But for the first time, the expansion will now occur on the big screen, all part of Disney's ambitious plan to release two or three Lucasfilm-produced movies a year (a roundabout way of saying "A whole lot of Star Wars!"). No details have been revealed on where Kasdan and Kinberg may take their scripts — we're still wondering who or what Episode VII is about — but with an endless ensemble to pick from, the sky is the limit.
Which character do you want to see get his or her own movie? Don't forget: Captain America director Joe Johnson really wants to make a Boba Fett movie. Now that dream is a real possibility.
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Lucasfilm]
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’X-Men’ Sequel: Huge Casting News!

Now that Comic-Con is behind us, what do comic book junkies have to look forward to? Well, according to Collider, the answer is the X-Men: First Class sequel — which will include the back story of Michael Fassbender's character, Magneto.
In an interview with the film's writer/producer Simon Kinberg, new details emerged about the comic book flick he calls "the most guarded state secret I've ever been around."
The plan for the sequel — which he says "is unlike the other X-Men movies" — is to do some unexpected things with Xavier and Magneto. In February he told MTV, "Magneto becomes the villain ultimately of the franchise but he's a much more complicated character as a young man. He's someone you sympathize with, you care about, you root for even though you might not necessarily agree with his methods, you understand his philosophy."
In the new movie, Magneto will have "a villainous side and he'll have a sympathetic human side. You'll be able to relate, but you'll also be afraid of him."
Kinberg has been working closely with director Matthew Vaughn and producer Jane Goldman on the script and they "hope to begin shooting in spring of next year to come out in July of 2014."
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In This Means War – a stylish action/rom-com hybrid from director McG – Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) and Chris Pine (Star Trek) star as CIA operatives whose close friendship is strained by the fires of romantic rivalry. Best pals FDR (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy) are equally accomplished at the spy game but their fortunes diverge dramatically in the dating realm: FDR (so nicknamed for his obvious resemblance to our 32nd president) is a smooth-talking player with an endless string of conquests while Tuck is a straight-laced introvert whose love life has stalled since his divorce. Enter Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) a pretty plucky consumer-products evaluator who piques both their interests in separate unrelated encounters. Tuck meets her via an online-dating site FDR at a video-rental store. (That Lauren is tech-savvy enough to date online but still rents movies in video stores is either a testament to her fascinating mix of contradictions or more likely an example of lazy screenwriting.)
When Tuck and FDR realize they’re pursuing the same girl it sparks their respective competitive natures and they decide to make a friendly game of it. But what begins as a good-natured rivalry swiftly devolves into romantic bloodsport with both men using the vast array of espionage tools at their disposal – from digital surveillance to poison darts – to gain an edge in the battle for Lauren’s affections. If her constitutional rights happen to be violated repeatedly in the process then so be it.
Lauren for her part remains oblivious to the clandestine machinations of her dueling suitors and happily basks in the sudden attention from two gorgeous men. Herein we find the Reese Witherspoon Dilemma: While certainly desirable Lauren is far from the irresistible Helen of Troy type that would inspire the likes of Tuck and FDR to risk their friendship their careers and potential incarceration for. At several points in This Means War I found myself wondering if there were no other peppy blondes in Los Angeles (where the film is primarily set) for these men to pursue. Then again this is a film that wishes us to believe that Tom Hardy would have trouble finding a date so perhaps plausibility is not its strong point.
When Lauren needs advice she looks to her boozy foul-mouthed best friend Trish (Chelsea Handler). Essentially an extension of Handler’s talk-show persona – an acquired taste if there ever was one – Trish’s dialogue consists almost exclusively of filthy one-liners delivered in rapid-fire succession. Handler does have some choice lines – indeed they’re practically the centerpiece of This Means War’s ad campaign – but the film derives the bulk of its humor from the outrageous lengths Tuck and FDR go to sabotage each others’ efforts a raucous game of spy-versus-spy that carries the film long after Handler’s shtick has grown stale.
Business occasionally intrudes upon matters in the guise of Heinrich (Til Schweiger) a Teutonic arms dealer bent on revenge for the death of his brother. The subplot is largely an afterthought existing primarily as a means to provide third-act fireworks – and to allow McGenius an outlet for his ADD-inspired aesthetic proclivities. The film’s action scenes are edited in such a manic quick-cut fashion that they become almost laughably incoherent. In fairness to McG he does stage a rather marvelous sequence in the middle of the film in which Tuck and FDR surreptitiously skulk about Lauren's apartment unaware of each other's presence carefully avoiding detection by Lauren who grooves absentmindedly to Montel Jordan's "This Is How We Do It." The whole scene unfolds in one continuous take – or is at least craftily constructed to appear as such – captured by one very agile steadicam operator.
Whatever his flaws as a director McG is at least smart enough to know how much a witty script and appealing leads can compensate for a film’s structural and logical deficiencies. He proved as much with Charlie’s Angels a film that enjoys a permanent spot on many a critic’s Guilty Pleasures list and does so again with This Means War. The film coasts on the chemistry of its three co-stars and only runs into trouble when the time comes to resolve its romantic competition which by the end has driven its male protagonists to engage in all manner of underhanded and duplicitous activities. This Means War being a commercial film – and likely an expensive one at that – Witherspoon's heroine is mandated to make a choice and McG all but sidesteps the whole thorny matter of Tuck and FDR’s unwavering dishonesty not to mention their craven disregard for her privacy. (They regularly eavesdrop on her activities.) For all their obvious charms the truth is that neither deserves Lauren – or anything other than a lengthy jail sentence for that matter.
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